Tautological Status of The Zeroth Law (Harder-2015)
Is Harder's zeroth law a tautology?
As any law, Harder's zeroth law attempts to forbid certain courses of events, for otherwise it would lack any empirical content and would be a tautology. Thus, the question is whether Harder's zeroth law is tautological or non-tautological, i.e. whether there are courses of action in principle forbidden by the law.
In the scientonomic context, this question was first formulated by Jennifer Whyte in 2016. The question is currently accepted as a legitimate topic for discussion by Scientonomy community.
In Scientonomy, the accepted answer to the question is:
- Harder's zeroth law is tautological.
Scientonomic History
Acceptance Record of the Question
Community | Accepted From | Acceptance Indicators | Still Accepted | Accepted Until | Rejection Indicators |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Scientonomy | 1 April 2016 | It was acknowledged as an open question by the Scientonomy Seminar 2016. | Yes |
All Direct Answers
Theory | Formulation | Formulated In |
---|---|---|
The Zeroth Law (Harder-2015) is Tautological (Fraser-Sarwar-2018) | Harder's zeroth law is tautological. | 2018 |
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Accepted Direct Answers
Community | Theory | Formulation | Accepted From | Accepted Until |
---|---|---|---|---|
Scientonomy | The Zeroth Law (Harder-2015) is Tautological (Fraser-Sarwar-2018) | Harder's zeroth law is tautological. | 3 June 2020 |
Suggested Modifications
Modification | Community | Date Suggested | Summary | Date Assessed | Verdict | Verdict Rationale |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sciento-2018-0015 | Scientonomy | 28 December 2018 | Accept the definition of compatibility, as the ability of two elements to coexist in the same mosaic. Also replace the zeroth law with the compatibility corollary. | 3 June 2020 | Accepted | While the modification induced a few comments on the encyclopedia, it became accepted as a result of discussions that took place mostly offline. It was agreed that the modification "comes to remedy one of the glaring omissions" in the current zeroth which doesn't "say much above and beyond what is already implicit in the notion of compatibility"c1 as it "is lacking in empirical content, and should be replaced with a definition of compatibility".c2 It was also noted that the proposed "definition of compatibility criteria... captures the gist of the concept as it has been used in our community".c3 It was also agreed that "the compatibility corollary follows from this definition".c4 c5 Finally, the community accepted that the definition and the corollary "recover the content of the Zeroth Law".c6 |
Current View
In Scientonomy, the accepted answer to the question is The Zeroth Law (Harder-2015) is Tautological (Fraser-Sarwar-2018).
The Zeroth Law (Harder-2015) is Tautological (Fraser-Sarwar-2018) states: "Harder's zeroth law is tautological."
According to Fraser and Sarwar, Harder's formulation of the zeroth law "does not have any empirical content, because it follows directly from the notion of compatibility".1
Related Topics
References
- ^ Fraser, Patrick and Sarwar, Ameer. (2018) A Compatibility Law and the Classification of Theory Change. Scientonomy 2, 67-82. Retrieved from https://scientojournal.com/index.php/scientonomy/article/view/31278.